Citation

Wardak KS, Buchsbaum RM, Walyzada F. J. Forensic Sci. 2014; 59(2): 399-403.

Affiliation

Broward County Medical Examiner and Trauma Services, 5301 S.W. 31st Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33312, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.12356

PMID

24528098

Abstract

Drowning is a diagnosis of exclusion based on circumstantial and autopsy correlation. Sugimura proposed a threshold value of 14.1 for the Drowning Index (DI), the ratio of lung and pleural fluid to spleen weight, as a surrogate marker to diagnose drowning. We questioned the use of DI in diagnosing drowning. We compared DI between three groups-drowning, mechanical asphyxia, and myocardial infarct-seen at Broward MEO from 2008 to 2009. Only 9.4% of 53 drownings exceeded the DI threshold of 14.1, while 30% of 10 mechanical asphyxias and 40% of 10 myocardial infarcts had DI >14.1. Sensitivity for the DI test was <10% and specificity 60-70%. Median DI values for all groups were <10. Mann-Whitney U-test was not statistically significant between groups. The DI is neither sensitive nor specific and lacks any utility in the diagnosis of drowning.

Language: en